It’s the last sentence I’m not sure is guaranteed fact. Howe had money at Bournemouth but even towards the end had Steve Cook and Simon Francis starting, choosing to spend significant money on Lloyd Kelly and Danjuma rather than replacing ageing, basic players. He also had a huge squad but it was chock full of plodders, Billing, Gosling, Meehan, Smith, Daniels, Lewis Cook. I just think Howe is dull, safe, uninspiring. He’s been reliant for far too long on Burn, Longstaff, Trippier, etc, we all know this, we’ve all got eyes and I don’t think money is the key as we’ve been constantly paying over the odds for British-based players. Yes, Tonali is in there, but he’s one player against Hall, Tino, Gordon, Barnes, Kelly, Osula, Odysseas. And I’m not saying they’re all bad purchases, but against the constraints of PSR and when compared to our glaring needs, we’ve spent £80m on a sub left back and a sub left winger, then line up every week with Pope, Burn, Murphy, Schar, etc. We should’ve been far more astute with the spending, and Howe has got to be part of the blame here.
Can’t totally disagree there to be fair. Barnes in particular a strange signing at the time although if it wasn’t for psr and apt it wouldn’t have been a problem. Time will tell. If he gets the money in summer he needs to really kick on.
It’s a difficult one, though. Given the last number of signings, do you give Howe control? It’s already looking likely we’ll be signing another relegated Burnley goalkeeper. I know that’s a very petty view of a guy who’s kept an insane number of clean sheets, don’t call me out! But I do feel like coining Hansens phrase - you’ll never win anything with Brits.
I don’t think he’ll have the same level of control he had before although to be fair all managers make mistakes in the market and he’s been involved in some top signings too. As for Brits, all records are there to be broken.
Eddie Howe is a custard cream. The man is boring as ****. He’s the guy who has the same socks in his drawer. The man who eats the same **** for breakfast. He’s a safe pair of hands.
With signings, i'm always left wondering who was actually involved in negotiations. i'm leaning towards amanda just giving agent what they asked for, hence average players on huge salaries. Is she the reason we were in the mire over PSR?
Targett is really the only one on a salary massively above his worth these days tbh. We've thankfully got rid of Lloyd Kelly on £150k pw.
The club was also 19th, heading down, and only had 4 weeks to save the entire club, so obviously they had to settle on some players and pay over the odds. He played very well and nobody was complaining when they kept him here. He got injuries unfortunately.
Yes, that season he was good and a regular. But nowadays he's the only one that stands out as being an anomaly.
Brighton's Brazil striker Joao Pedro, 23, wants to join Liverpool this summer. (Football Insider) He can want all he wants, that ain't happening lol.
Relating to Mogwai's comment about average players on huge salaries, as I don't really see that, apart from Targett being in the high earners. And his initial form would have got him bargaining power there, but he's the only one who looks significantly overpaid right now.
